The Nowhere To Go and All Day To Get There Tour aka The Blame It On Ellwood Tour

Hello everyone, I'm Steve



This is Judy



We left Monday from Lancaster County Pennsylvania for the Beagle Channel. I've been lurnin' not just lurkin' for quite a while on this site. I would like to tell the orange crush members that I was going to take this tour several years back on my KTM 950 but then I was introduced to Judy and after we realized this was going to last I invited her along. As anyone knows passenger comfort is everything or you ain't gettin' anything, so we are taking the Harley. I just needed to give her time to get her affairs in order. We plan to travel slow and steady for one to two years so stay tuned. Hopefully I can get this blogging and photo act down. So let's see if I was paying attention.


Starting Mileage First sticker on the bike ADV Dakar

We finally got on the road around 10 or 11 Monday April 1st. We rolled across the Eastern Shore of Maryland through Delaware to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Rather than heading straight for Fayetteville we were sidetracked on day two and went to the Outer Banks instead. We are currently in Fayetteville riding out stormy weather and visiting family. Sites up to this point

















We met Andre on the ferry from Hatteras to Okracoke. He is a German born architect living in New York City for the past twelve years. He is on a three month tour of the back roads of the United States riding a Harley Davidson VRod. His plan is NYC to Key West then San Francisco and back to NYC That's the short version. Here we're parked on the ferry.



This is Judy with Andre



That catches us up to this point Hopefully everything will post properly. Thank you all for your time and interest. Steve and Judy. KTMayhem

Enjoy the Outer Banks. Cedar Key then Beaufort and points South?

Okay, so we arrived Wednesday evening in Fayetteville at my father in laws house to ride out the stormy weather. We planned to stay two nights and leave on Friday. As it turned out, his caretaker was away for the week so we volunteered to stay with him until she got back. Friday morning he wakes up late, which was unusual for him, he's always the first one up. He stumbles out of bed and tells us he can't see anything. Now what? He refuses to go to the eye doctor so we just carry on as usual. Try to tell an 80+ year old retired military man to do anything. Good luck with that. Anyway around 3:30 he slumps into his table and is incoherent and unable to move or respond. Naturally we call 911 and his son, Randy in Texas. The paramedics arrive and within that time he has returned from space and is able to answer all questions and refuse care. They eventually abide and pack up to leave. No sooner are they at the end of the driveway Ray says he is having trouble breathing. So Judy runs out after them, they hook him up to monitor his heartbeat and tell us they are taking him to the hospital because of an erratic heartbeat. He's in the hospital being tested and his son can't get a flight until Monday so we will be staying here until then to keep the place secure and wait for Randy to show up as well as find out how Ray is doing.
The next post will be Tuesday or Wednesday from the road south of here, either Charleston,SC or Savannah,GA until then sit tight. Thank you

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Very nice bike

We hit the road from Fayetteville on Tuesday. Randy showed up from Texas and has the situation under control concerning his father. It was good to see Ray on his feet at the hospital so we expect him to be released soon. Tuesday was basically a travel day so we didn't take any photos worth posting. We headed back for the coast and continued down 17South into Myrtle Beach SC. which to me was a tourist trap. No thanks, we rolled out of there as fast as we could. We stopped in Mount Pleasant just before the bridge into Charleston and walked out onto the pier that goes beneath the bridge to about half way across the river. We saw the USS Yorktown downriver from the pier. It is a museum exhibit now but we didn't go to it we decided to keep moving south. We had a plan to spend our time in Savannah. We got off the road in Beaufort SC about an hour north of Savannah. It turns out this is home to Parris Island where the toughest men in America, the US Marines have boot camp. I know, get on with the pictures. Relax, I'm almost there! We got up early and parked the bike in Savannah by 9:00AM. We picked up a map and started walking around the historic district. This is an easy place to love. Check it out for yourself
















* After we left Savannah we rode through Ft Stewart, *I think it's an Army training base where we only stopped for one picture. *



You don't see that sign everyday. We stopped in Douglas Ga for the night heading for Montgomery Al in the morning.

Midnight In Montgomery
We left Douglas, Ga. this morning riding toward the lightning thunder hail and tornados that are rolling over the deep south. We rode across Georgia on state route 32. What a great riding road. Long straight stretches long sweeping curves and smooth asphalt through pine forests and serene lakes dotting the countryside. We then picked up US82 in Dawson,Ga for another 130 miles of riding bliss. West of I75 in Ga the terrain started to change to rolling farmland with a lot of angus and crops other than pine trees Corn is popping through the soil already in these parts. The closer we got to Montgomery the road started to roller coaster and curves were sharper and more frequent. We interrupt this ride to introduce you to Alabama State Trooper T A Hutton. Not so fast yankee, here's your warning. Apparently those little white signs with the number 55 on them are not suggestions but actually the state speed limit. Who knew? We made it into Montgomery in time to get a room and some food before the storms hit. I also fixed yesterday's post so you should see the pictures this time. I still can't get the captions on more than one or two pictures so that is still an issue. Over and Out

Okay, so I know I've been slacking on this ride report buta I am going to bring T
it up to speed now.

We got up and made our way to Natchez on the east bank of the Mississippi River. We parked the bike and walked around checking out some Antebellum houses. Meaning pre civil war. Apparently there are over 500 structures that have been saved throughout the years. These are pictures of what we saw and also just a hodgepodge of things in and around Natchez. One thing to note, the picture after the wild boar head is an early 50's original model pogo stick before they put handles at the top.
















After Natchez we rode to Austin Tx and spent the night just west of the city. We got up and rode to my favorite place in Texas. Luckenbach. I've ridden out to Texas five times and gone to Luckenbach every time. There's just something about the place. We hung around and shot the place up (with cameras) then left for a warm, sunny ride through the hill country as we made our way to Del Rio on the Rio Grande. Although there is a border crossing here we are not crossing until we ride through Big Bend NP. Just west of there is a border crossing at Presidio/Ojinaga where we plan to enter Mexico. Blue bonnets are the state flower-last picture















We left Del Rio and rode west into the town of Langtry, TX. which is famous for Judge Roy Bean. The Law West of the Pecos. According to the exhibit in the visitors center. There was no jail so every crime was a a finable offense. He even confiscated a Colt revolver from a dead man and fined him the $42 in his pocket for carrying a concealed weapon. They had a beautiful cactus garden on the grounds next to his Courthouse/Saloon/Billiard Hall. I started taking pictures of each sign and plant and before I knew it the must have been fifty varieties of cactus growing. Don't worry I won't bore you with too many. We then bought our pass for Big Bend NP and passed through the park to a dry,dusty town called Terlingua,TX. We got up and toured the park and hiked into Santa Elana Canyon. *Cut by the Rio Grande the canyon walls are 1500 feet high. The water level is really low and there were spots you could easily walk across into Mexico the only problem is getting fined or prison for illegally entering either country. We are going to Mexico so no need to take a chance.

So I lied last post when I said I was going to bring it up to date. It took three attempts to get posted what I did by that time I was fed up and it was late, BUT
I think I finally figured out what needs to be done to get this blog updated. There is quite the learning curve to this ADV stuff. I'm about a week or so behind on this blog still so let's get on with it. A lot of this is cut and paste from my blogspot so I will try to edit it accordingly and add what needs to be added. Thanks for your patience.*


We woke up early in anticipation of our border crossing into Mexico. We went next door to the Oasis restaurant for a delicious breakfast burrito and coffee. While there, we interrogated the waitress about the whole process. She was very informative and really put us at ease about the ordeal as well as giving us sound directions to Chihuahua,Mexico where we were welcomed intothe home of Cesar Villa and his beautiful wife Violeta and their three month new son Cesar Gabriel Villa Jr. I contacted them through ADVrider tentspace. They have been wonderful, gracious hosts offering us the world. Violetas home cooked meals were better than any Mexican restaurant we have eaten at along the way Cesar went over the map with us and showed us the few spots to avoid, but other than that the country is safer than the US media will have you believe. *Cesar rides a VStrom 1000 and Violeta rides the VStrom 650 they had while dating. They also toured all over Mexico for their honeymoon on the motorcycle. We are resting up here before we go to the Copper Canyon.*



After a wonderful visit with our new friends Cesar and Violeta we moved on towards the Copper Canyon. After the crush of close to a million people in Chihuahua we were glad to get away from the traffic. The scenery has been pretty much the same since we left the hill country of Texas, dry scrubby brush in a brutal desert environment. On the road to Creel it finally started to rise in elevation and I think they're Juniper trees, started to cover the landscape. We arrived in Creel, the largest town in the Copper Canyon area, population 6000. I'm including a few pictures we took today that include what I call a "dust devil" along the road when we stopped to rest as well as a huge dust devil over the mountain as seen from the street in Creel. You can see the change in scenery and a smilin' horse although he doesn't have much to smile about. Just horsin' around!







We woke up at 7000+ feet above sea level and you could see your breath in the air, A perfect morning for a ride. After breakfast we headed out to ride around the Copper Canyon. It's not just one canyon but six. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Canyon We stopped and took a gondola out over one of the canyons and had an excellent operator, Guadalupe, that was very knowledgable about the history, geology, flora and fauna. They are in the process of installing the worlds largest zip-line right next to the tram, expected speeds of 70 miles an hour out over this canyon *you can also cliff climb and ride the existing zip-line After the ride we rode towards Urique until we ran out of asphalt. I wanted to keep going but needed to turn around anyway, the road was one way in one way out, at least for a Harley. *Oh yeah, when we arrived at the tram the police had the road blocked off and wouldn't let us return to Creel. It turns out there was a car race, The Chihuahua Express, that was due to finish at this point and they had the road closed to all traffic. We met a lady from California, Rita who was waiting for her husband Doug, who was one of the drivers in the race. *The last photo is of 400 year old burial caves used by the Tarahumara Indians.*















We left Creel and headed toward Batopolis, another day of twists and turns through amazing canyons and vistas. We turned around when the asphalt ended since we would have to return this way anyway. We stopped in a dusty little town called Guachochi for the night and walked around the center of town listening to a mariachi band playing for some sort of candidate campaign. We left in the morning for Durango and stopped at the first hotel that we found. For $8.00, we got what we paid for. It was kind of sketchy, think flophouse, but we were beat and Ipulled the bike into the lobby for the night. Everything was still there in the morning and we didn't get gnawed on by bedbugs or see any cockroaches so it was worth the $8.00. Driving in Mexico has it's own hazards, such as dogs, horses, cows, burros and all sorts of other things roaming around freely. We have seen several smilin' horses and other assorted animals. The road from Durango to Mazatlan, is known as the Devil's Backbone. This is on my list as one of the most scenic twisty fantastic motorcycle riding roads that I have been on. Thanks Cesar, for telling us about it. Comparable to The Tail of the Dragon on the NC/Tenn border, the Dragon is more technical for riding skills, but Runnin' the Devils Backbone is probably fifty miles longer and 1000 times more scenic. This road is tie with the road in Glacier NP on up through the Canadian Rockies to Jasper NP. As for Cancer, that's just a reference to us crossing the Tropic of Cancer on this same road to Mazatlan. We were sitting in the shade trying to figure out our next move, when a pickup truck pulls up with Washington plates on it. After some discussion, George tells us to follow him. He takes us through the mango groves and we pull into this town called Chametla. This was his mothers home town and he and his sisters inherited her hacienda. He winters down here every year and was happy to be able to have a conversation in English for a change. Anyway he sets us up in the local hotel and proceeds to rollout the red carpet and give us the grand tour. We go to a couple of places to eat, first it was oysters on the riverbank where they were dugout of the beds, I had mine grilled as well as some raw. We saved a little room for the next place, fresh ceviche that was made with either fish, squid, crab or shrimp. Judy had the shrimp I had the crab as we always eat half and switch no matter what we get. We also sampled the fish ceviche. George had the squid. This topped off the belly so he takes us for a ride out the back of town through mango groves and in a matter of five or ten minutes we're dippin' our toes in the Pacific. Life's a Beach ain't it?!! George is wearing the white shirt/black shorts.*






















* * *The Devils Backbone Photos Start Here







* * * * * Our time in Chametla starts here













There's an old saying that guests are like fish, *after three days they begin to stink. *Besides not wanting to wear out our welcome, *we were ready to hit the road. *So with a tear in our eye we pried ourselves away from our new friends. *George and his cousins as well as all of the people in Chametla treated us like family and welcomed us back any time. Just as Cesar and Violeta did in Chihuahua. Maybe our country should rethink their portrayal of the Mexican people. I think the media has it all wrong. * The bike turned south and then east toward Guadalahara. I managed to get us into the city center at rush hour in 90*+ heat with full leathers and helmet on. An hour and a half later we squirted out the other side *and found the next closest town spelled Zapotanlejo. *Seemed like a trendy place with a lot of friendly people. *We ate some tacos from the street vendor right outside our hotel and we both agree they were the best so far. *We moved on to a town I had read about called Guanajuato. *This place looks Spanish on the outside but with all of the tunnels interconnecting under the ground it looks like a medieval city out of Europe down there, *we just haven't been able to place it. We took a funicular ride up the hill and took a bunch of photos and rode around the city panoramic road and also blasted through a bunch of tunnels so we could give you a feel for what the subterranean network of interconnecting tunnels looks like









































We left Guanajuato behind and made our way to the Gulf coast to a town called *Tecolutla where we are now taking a three day break and I finally have this blog caught up to date. Monday,April 29,2013 I did a some more posin' on the way at some lake in the mountains, northwest of VeraCruz. *Call me a poser, that's what Harley Riders do isn't it!?